Eighteen persons were reported to have died due to floods and landslides spawned by the shear line in Davao Region while damage to agriculture climbed to P82 million, authorities said.

In a press briefing in Camp Crame on Monday, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. said deaths rose to 18 with six injured.

"Unfortunately there were 18 who died and six injured. The police are deployed in coordination with other agencies and we hope that this number will not increase anymore," he said.

In an interview at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon, Director Edgar Posadas, NDRRMC spokesman, said the damage to agriculture in the Caraga and Davao regions ballooned to P82 million.

"We have an initial estimate of the damages to agriculture, it reached 82 million (pesos). It may still increase with the improvement of the weather, the local government units were able to conduct a rapid assessment," he said.

"We also elevated the status for our emergency operation centers in OCD-Caraga and OCD Region XI to Blue alert. Meaning additional personnel will augment to include our uniformed services and that is complimented by our Blue alert status here in Camp Aguinaldo," he added.

Posadas said the number of families affected by the weather system in both Caraga and Davao regions are 152,642 or 670,807 individuals in 388 barangays.

"Out of the 152,000 families, 8,590 were accommodated in our evacuation center or translating to 32,116 individuals," he added.

Posadas said 11 areas in the two regions were declared under state of calamity because of the effect of the shear line.

"As we speak, we have 11 declared under state of calamity, seven in Davao Region and four in Caraga," he said.

The NDRRMC report noted that there were P26,870,000 worth of damage to infrastructure, mostly due to the affected roads and utility service facilities.

It also shows that there were 162 houses that were affected by the shear line, of which 142 were partially damaged and 20 others were destroyed. Robina Asido/DMS